Charles was the first person released under First Step Act

In 1996, Charles was sentenced to 35 years in prison on drug-related offenses. After that, he found God, taught GED classes and became a law clerk in prison. According to the White House, Charles was the first person released from prison under the First Step Act earlier this year.

Charles was released from prison once, until an appeals court intervened

In 2015, a former federal judge agreed Charles deserved a shortened sentence. As a result, he was released one year later. He did not re-offend. An appeals court reversed the judge's ruling, and he was ordered to serve a full 35 years behind bars. As he prepared to return to prison in 2018, his case received national attention in part due to coverage from Nashville Public Radio.

How the First Step Act helped Matthew Charles

In late 2018, the new First Step Act was passed into law, allowing judges to apply the drug sentencing reforms of the Fair Sentencing Act retroactively. The law cleared the way for Charles' sentence to be reconsidered again.

On Dec. 27, federal public defenders representing Charles asked for his sentence to be lowered after the First Step Act was signed by Trump. Prosecutors responded and he was released on Jan. 3.

Other Tennesseans at State of the Union

Charles will be joined by Alice Johnson, a former prisoner from Memphis whose cause caught Trump's attention, and by the family of Pierce Corcoran, a Knoxville man was killed in a car wreck.

Johnson was granted clemency while serving a mandatory life sentence on nonviolent drug charges. She was released in June 2018.

Corcoran was killed in a car wreck after investigators said Francisco Eduardo Franco-Cambrany, 44, crossed the center line and hit Corcoran head-on. Franco-Cambrany was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody following the wreck and prosecutors have said he is an undocumented immigrant facing deportation to Mexico.

How to watch the State of the Union

Tuesday's speech will take place at 9 p.m. ET (8 p.m. CT). The address was scheduled to take place on Tuesday, Jan. 29, but was delayed due to the government shutdown.